"I curse this damned fate."
Under the dim light, the handsome young man shook his snow-white hair. The corner of his mouth twitched into a dry, somewhat strange smile.
"No, seriously, man... this can't be right?"
Herbert had been reincarnated and had awakened his memories of his previous life not long ago.
In his previous life, Herbert had been a rookie corporate drone with only two years on the job. Before the capitalists could squeeze him dry of his remaining surplus value, an overloaded heavy truck hauling a hundred tons of steel coils had flattened him into a paper cutout.
Don't ask.
The answer was "Truck drivers have it rough.jpg."
The answer was "We're all doing our best to stay alive.mp3."
But Herbert wasn't cursing the tragic fate of his previous life right now.
He had been all alone in that life anyway. On holidays, even if he wanted to visit a family grave, his only option had been to bow at a martyrs' cemetery. He had left no loved ones behind.
After his dreams and his body had both been ground to dust, winning the resurrection round and being reborn as a human still felt like a pretty good deal to Herbert.
What gave him that peculiar expression was his current location-a dark, chilling prison.
The good news was that he wasn't a prisoner. He was the warden in charge of them.
The bad news was that this prison belonged to an ancient monastery.
A monastery...
Was that really where a hot-blooded eighteen-year-old like him belonged?
But for Herbert, that wasn't even the worst part.
A transplanted tree might die, but a relocated man could thrive. If all else failed, he could just pack up and bail.
He wasn't some stupid college student who knew nothing about the world. He had picked up the stink of working life, and he had plenty of tricks up his sleeve.
What truly broke Herbert was everything that had happened the day before his past-life memories awakened.
At noon yesterday, Herbert had sworn his sacred oath under the gaze of a deity. The monastery had formally accepted him, and he had become a Holy Knight of an ascetic order.
And the oath he had sworn with his own lips was called-the "Oath of Purity."
With a deity as his witness, Herbert would devote his life to justice and order in the world, fight for the weak, and forever preserve the cleanliness of his heart, the purity of his feelings, and the chastity of his body...
Just listen to that!
Does that sound remotely reasonable?
After spending a long moment in shock over that oath, Herbert had screamed inwardly-
Isn't this just a fucking magical chastity belt?!
Herbert admitted that, in his previous life, he had indeed kept plenty of unspeakable little movies on a 24 TB hard drive and sampled plenty of little games that demanded his utmost concentration...
But forcing him to spend this life as an ascetic who renounced romance and restrained his desires-wasn't that punishment a little excessive?
Surely my crimes don't warrant this!
I didn't hoard those files, either! I sorted all the tags and shared everything!
You can't single me out for torture!
Make them wear this cock-binding circlet too!
If I can't escape, neither can you-
"...Tch."
As he stared at the sacred mark on the back of his hand, which glowed pale gold in the darkness, Herbert's resentment swelled.
It was one thing for someone else to start out as a monk doing menial work at the Shaolin Temple. Sure, they had to abstain from women too, but at least they could return to secular life. With a little effort, they could even enter a joint venture with a demonic sect temptress and produce a baby.
But the Holy Knights of this world were different. Breaking their oaths really did bring a backlash.
All of a Holy Knight's power came from the sacred oath they swore. The weightier the oath, the stronger the blessings they received by upholding it.
As those who stood on the front lines against madness and despair, Holy Knights enjoyed the deities' favor and received blessings so generous they could only be called extravagant.
Some Holy Knights who swore grand vows even gained the terrifying strength to grapple with dragons barehanded.
But just as all the stories said, miracles and magic were never free. Every gift of fate came with a price quietly charged in advance.
The more a Holy Knight was granted, the worse the backlash when they fell and broke their oath.
Mental collapse, rotting flesh, a withered soul... those were merely the basics. In certain cases, they could even turn into abyssal monsters that knew nothing but slaughter.
In Herbert's current condition, breaking his oath would leave him gravely wounded and dying at best. At worst, he would drop dead on the spot and be sent straight into another resurrection round against everyone else.
So, at least for now, as far as Herbert was concerned-getting frisky meant getting finished.
Tch!
Honestly, Herbert didn't think his current situation was much better than being a eunuch.
At least the eunuchs had lost their equipment. Even if they wanted to, they couldn't, so they could give up on the idea entirely.
But him?
Not enough to get anywhere, more than enough to suffer. All this energy and nowhere to put it... pure torture!
What misery.
My life is so miserable!
Herbert took a deep breath, tilted his head back, and slowly exhaled, his mouth opening and closing without a sound.
Hnn, hnn, hnn, ha-uuugh, aaaaaah-
After venting his impotent rage for a while, Herbert calmed down and more or less accepted his situation. He narrowed his eyes and considered what to do next.
"I'm definitely breaking this oath. There's no way I'm going my whole life without breaking it... but I'll put up with it for now. No rush."
Having someone forcibly keep his little head in check certainly annoyed Herbert, but he wasn't some lust-crazed fiend who couldn't think without his lower half. He wasn't going to lose his mind over it.
Much less consider escaping from the monastery.
On the contrary, he intended to stay here and continue his training.
In fact, Herbert hadn't come to the Misty Monastery willingly. He had been forced here in the name of "atonement."
The Albert Family, into which Herbert had been born, were founding nobles of the Frost Crystal Kingdom. As hereditary dukes, they had always maintained good relations with the royal family, and the two families frequently intermarried.
As the second son and the most gifted of his brothers, Herbert had been very close to his childhood friend, the young princess Felia. They were intimate friends who could tell each other anything.
Many believed they would become the next queen and prince consort. Herbert had neither particularly liked nor disliked the prospect, but he too had taken it for granted as a likely outcome.
That was why, when Felia's personal maid came to invite him to a private meeting on her behalf that day, he had followed without the slightest suspicion.
Yet after Herbert arrived at Felia's bedchamber for their meeting, the royal guards waiting there arrested him on the absurd charge of "attempting to defile the princess's chastity" and threw him into prison.
Herbert tried to explain, believing there had been some misunderstanding, but no one paid him any attention.
Felia, the other person involved, never appeared at all. Her silence tacitly endorsed every accusation and insult hurled at Herbert.
In the end, a thoroughly disheartened Herbert stopped defending himself and accepted his punishment of exile to the monastery.
After arriving here, he had even willingly devoted himself to the church, hoping to prove his innocence by swearing the Oath of Purity.
He was practically the protagonist of a classical tragedy, choosing death to prove his integrity.
Was it tragic?
Yes.
Did Herbert feel sorry for him?
A little, but only a little.
Herbert felt more disdain than sympathy for the person he had been in this life.
For the son of a noble family, he had behaved far too foolishly.
Naive. Far too naive!
That sweet, innocent, clueless boy had failed to see the twists and turns of scheming and intrigue. He had never suspected anyone.
He had never even realized that this was a cruel conspiracy deliberately aimed at him, rather than some lovely misunderstanding.
But looking back now, Herbert could easily see how much about this farce didn't add up.
Oh, come on. Someone framed me, didn't they?
And here I thought something serious had happened.
After all that fuss, it was just a honey trap!
How novel!
Herbert could safely say that he was all too familiar with this kind of maneuver...
Don't get the wrong idea. He just had a lot of friends who frequently fell victim to honey traps.
Really.
Because he had once been a rather accomplished ambulance chaser... no, a legal professional.
Before you continue